Use Of Rigid Tape By Doctors After Head Injury Affected My Focus: Bajrang Punia

Star wrestler Bajrang Punia remains baffled by the on-spot doctors' decision to use 'rigid tape' on his bleeding head, which severely hampered his focus ahead of the quarterfinal clash against USA's John Michael Diakomihalis during the World Championship. Bajrang, gunning for his maiden world title, suffered a head injury in his opening bout against Cuba's Alejandro Enrique Vlades Tobier in the very first minute of the clash in Belgrade.

The on-spot doctors rushed to the mat and applied 'rigid tape', which is actually used to stabilise knee and ankle. Mostly tennis players and basketball players use that tape.

"God knows why they did that? It caused irritation because my hairs were getting pulled as it had stuck on my head. They did not even put cotton on the wound and directly applied the tape. I had to cut my hair from a certain spots to get rid of that. It took me almost 20 minutes to remove that," Bajrang told PTI.

"Instead of devising a strategy against the American, me and my team was jostling to get that tape removed from my head. All I had about 20-25 minutes before I clashed with the American and all of that time was lost," the 28-year-old rued.

Dr. Anand Dubey, who is attached with Bajrang as his personal physio, said ideally the doctors should have used a cohesive tape.

"The rigid tape can actually cause skull swelling because even a gentle touch would cause irritation and pull the hair. You know how wrestlers keep putting their hands on rival's head. So we decided to remove that and applied a cohesive tape," explained Dubey.

"The cohesive tape is flexible. Once impact is made when it comes in contact with a body part during an attacking move, it would come back to original shape automatically, won't cause